[Grammar] All participants or all of the participants

[Oceanlike]

This is a synthesis exercise.

Question: Not a single participant was absent during the training.

(A) My answer: All of the participants were present during the training.

(B) I'm wondering if I can leave out 'of the' and still stay in context, as in without changing the meaning of the question.

(C) What if I leave out only 'of'? As in, 'All the participants were present during the training.'

Thank you!

 

[Sue01]

Hi Oceanlike,

I would say that all your options work well. 'All participants' might have a bit more of a 'succinct' feel to it, and may be more commonly found in report writing, for instance. But this is a very subtle difference and in practice I would say that they all work equally well.

Regards,

Sue

 

[jutfrank]

By saying the training, you seem to be specifying so you should use the same kind of reference for the participants. The definite article (the) is a specific reference. Therefore, you should say all (of) the participants. (The of is optional.)

If you do not use (of) the, you are using a more general reference.